Thursday, November 6, 2014

Literary ramble: Why is it always elves?

Greetings internet I have a question for everyone. Whats with the elves? More specifically why does it seem that Elves are either near extinct, lost their empire, or have been the root cause of many of the worlds woes? I mean I can't have been the only one to notice this particular trend am I? Its not that I think elves are special goodness no but I find it odd that they always seem to get the short end of the stick. There are exceptions of course. Guild wars 2 for example has mankind take the place of elves. Mainly cause every other living creature in that world seems to have been built to be stronger. smarter, faster, or more passionate than the average man but still an exception.

I kinda get why this is. After all everyone loves a good story about a bunch of high and mighty imbeciles getting their just deserts. After all revenge is a dish best served ironically, or cold I guess if your into the whole vacuum of space thing. Perhaps it started with Tolkien, after all his elves had to leave middle earth... cause reasons. (Quiet! I read the lord of the rings... in high school.) This seems to have carried over into more contemporary sources with nearly every incarnation.

World of Warcraft. The queen of the elves was super vain and wanted to marry a dark titan roughly equivalent to that universes Satan. Warhammer 40k The elves or Eldar as they are called in that setting accidentally birthed a god of debauchery by having an empire wide orgy of sound, sex and indulgence. Not surprising the elves in that setting are kinda icky. Even StarTrek and their vulcans so dedicated to logic and reason but their planet get destroyed in the 2009 star trek movie. Granted that happend in and alternate universe but still.

I mean really why can't some other race in fantasy get the shaft? Why can't orcs have once had a magnificent technicolor magic civilization that fell due to an ill conceived attempt to make the worlds tastiest cake and accidentally unleash the destroyer of worlds or something? Why can't Dwarves have to sail across the ocean to another planet because their time on the world is spent? Why can't Dwarves be different from every other Dwarf in every other fantasy world? But that's another topic.